Brand new to the blueprint; started Famine yesterday.
Today I decided to log my food for the remaining days of famine to keep myself honest (I happen to use the LiveStrong "myplate" app whenever I log my food.) Today was 1400 cal, 70g fat, 163 g Carbs, and 24 g protein. Today was definitely more protein than yesterday.
First workout was:
Warmed up with turkish getups and Overhead squats, just up to 65 lbs. Then:
Back squats (205 lbs x 5 reps) jump setted with inverted rows(7 reps, feet elevated but no extra weight)
Neutral grips chins (no weight, reps were 7,6,5) jumped with cable rows (100 on the stack).
1 set curls with EZcurl bar. Was going to do DB curls next, but found out that aggravated an existing forearm injury that I got doing snatch-grip high pulls a couple weeks ago.
Famine supplement plan: green tea extract, fish oil, and vitamin D.
About me:
50 years old. typical workouts have been "starting strength" or "max effort black box" based. See https://www.bootcampfitnesskc.com/catego ... black-box/ if interested.
Had been injury-free for over a year, but recently tweaked something in my forearm/elbow doing snatch grip high pulls, then impinged my shoulder badly doing dips. That was a surprise, I've historically tolerated dips very well. So I'm somewhat limping into the program, but charging forward anyway. Recent maxes:
Back Squat 230x5
Deadlift 328x6
Shoulder press 130x5
I also stay away from flat benches because of an ancient history with my right shoulder, I either do DB benches or incline benches instead.
I will be tweaking the program just ever so slightly to accommodate for the fact that I commute by bike to work roughly 2 days a week, and to accommodate for the lack of squat racks/cages in my gym (they just have squat stands).[/url]
LuckyMan's BP 3.0 log
Stupid question time:
For the feast phase, I think the idea of the 5 'bridge' workouts has gone away, and we proceed directly into the static holds + EDT described starting on page 4. Correct?
Eating continues on plan. Yesterday was 1420 calories (74g fat, 141 carb, 37 protein). Whew, surprised how much worse my knees feel than they usually do 2 days after a squat workout. Definitely reinforcing that eating is key to recovery.
For the feast phase, I think the idea of the 5 'bridge' workouts has gone away, and we proceed directly into the static holds + EDT described starting on page 4. Correct?
Eating continues on plan. Yesterday was 1420 calories (74g fat, 141 carb, 37 protein). Whew, surprised how much worse my knees feel than they usually do 2 days after a squat workout. Definitely reinforcing that eating is key to recovery.
I've been assuming 3.0 was the way to go; it being the newest version and all. Is there any reason why in some cases it might be better to go 2.0?
Finished day 5 of the famine yesterday. My original plan was a 6-day famine , with the workouts on days 2, 4, and 6. But instead I'm skipping the last workout and just did a 5-day famine, because yesterday I found out my team is going to a huge celebration dinner today at a good ribs place.
The famine was interesting. Yesterday (day 5) I felt really good; I expected I would feel run down and cranky. I'm wondering if the Now Foods EGCG green tea extra I've been taking is helping in that area. The famine is the first time i've ever taken EGCG.
My famine eating pattern was:
A "bulletproof coffee" type drink around 10am, at my first real break at work. (Coffee Americano + 2 TBS grassfed butter + 1 TBS MCT oil; + the EGCG)
Light Vegetarian lunch at 1pm
Banana and / or grapefruit when I got home
Light vegetarian dinner
1 TBS fish oil, vitamin D, and 1 small square dark (85%) chocolate before bed.
Finished day 5 of the famine yesterday. My original plan was a 6-day famine , with the workouts on days 2, 4, and 6. But instead I'm skipping the last workout and just did a 5-day famine, because yesterday I found out my team is going to a huge celebration dinner today at a good ribs place.
The famine was interesting. Yesterday (day 5) I felt really good; I expected I would feel run down and cranky. I'm wondering if the Now Foods EGCG green tea extra I've been taking is helping in that area. The famine is the first time i've ever taken EGCG.
My famine eating pattern was:
A "bulletproof coffee" type drink around 10am, at my first real break at work. (Coffee Americano + 2 TBS grassfed butter + 1 TBS MCT oil; + the EGCG)
Light Vegetarian lunch at 1pm
Banana and / or grapefruit when I got home
Light vegetarian dinner
1 TBS fish oil, vitamin D, and 1 small square dark (85%) chocolate before bed.
Forgot to add the workout part:
Got to the gym, and for the first time ever there was a waiting line for the squat/press rack. So I decided to go with the following for my "push" day:
-DB benches
-DB shoulder presses
4 jump sets as instructed. But coming from a 'starting strength" type background I totally underestimated the impact the two exercises would have on each other. so I ended up walking down the dumbell rack, reducing the weight with each of the 4 sets. I.E., pretty darn intense.
Finished off with 3 sets pushdowns.
First time in probably 25 years that I did a weight workout with no legs. Felt really weird not being hammered by squats or deadlifts by the end of the workout. Triceps are super-sore today. Looking forward to the huge meal tonight.
Other work I got in during the week:
-1 hour bike ride on day 1
-commuted by bike on day 3 (25 minutes each way)
-20 minute fasted walk each morning with the dog. He's a half German shepard, half chow so we move along pretty good.
Got to the gym, and for the first time ever there was a waiting line for the squat/press rack. So I decided to go with the following for my "push" day:
-DB benches
-DB shoulder presses
4 jump sets as instructed. But coming from a 'starting strength" type background I totally underestimated the impact the two exercises would have on each other. so I ended up walking down the dumbell rack, reducing the weight with each of the 4 sets. I.E., pretty darn intense.
Finished off with 3 sets pushdowns.
First time in probably 25 years that I did a weight workout with no legs. Felt really weird not being hammered by squats or deadlifts by the end of the workout. Triceps are super-sore today. Looking forward to the huge meal tonight.
Other work I got in during the week:
-1 hour bike ride on day 1
-commuted by bike on day 3 (25 minutes each way)
-20 minute fasted walk each morning with the dog. He's a half German shepard, half chow so we move along pretty good.
Thanks drtda, that wasn't obvious. I'll go with a mainly 3.0-inspired theme.
I went through my first two feast workouts.
One thing I ran into was trying to figure out how to warm up. I've found I need a pretty thorough movement-specific warmup to stay away from problems now that I'm older. I decided to add a warmup including a 5-3-1 style last set before attempting the static holds. I've also messed a little bit with the exercise combinations, as you'll see below. I'm hoping that's not messing with the program too much. It feels good so far.
Workout 0: (skill/conditioning)
Light overhead squats (up to 70 lbs)
Snatch practice: several sets of 1 high hang power snatch + 1 high hang full snatch, just with 50 lbs
Prowler pushing approx 40 yds on astroturf with 135 lbs
7 reps, on the 1.5 minute mark
Workout 1:
Shoulder presses (with a regular barbell): worked up to 115 lbs x 5
Shoulder press static hold (on the smith machine): tried 215 lbs, couldn't get it off the bottom pin. Then tried 190, held that for 30 seconds. Will go for 3 sets at 205 next time.
Density work w/ rest times as specified in BP3.0:
DB bench presses with 50 lb DBs
Inverted rows
Did 6 sets of each. Would like to be doing dips, but since I'm just getting over my dip-caused shoulder injury that would probably be asking for trouble.
Workout 2:
Deadlift 305 lbs x 5 (328x5 my recent rep max, from 3 weeks ago)
Deadlift smith machine static hold: 2 sets 15 seconds 415 lbs
Density work:
6 sets belt squats w/ 200 lbs using the iron mind loading pin Rob recommended. Went 2.5 minutes between sets. Decided not to alternate these with anything.
2 sets RDLs with 155 lbs. First set 8 reps, 2nd set 6 reps.
Ran out of time to do the abs/core density work.
Did 6 caps synthagen before the workouts, 6 oz tart cherry juice mixed with 12 oz water to down the synthagen and during the workouts, and 3 caps just before the main meal after the works. Fish oil, along with Vitamin D / K, and curcumin. Adaptagen N at bedtime.
Darn it, am meaning to take the EGCG during the morning, but keep forgetting.
I went through my first two feast workouts.
One thing I ran into was trying to figure out how to warm up. I've found I need a pretty thorough movement-specific warmup to stay away from problems now that I'm older. I decided to add a warmup including a 5-3-1 style last set before attempting the static holds. I've also messed a little bit with the exercise combinations, as you'll see below. I'm hoping that's not messing with the program too much. It feels good so far.
Workout 0: (skill/conditioning)
Light overhead squats (up to 70 lbs)
Snatch practice: several sets of 1 high hang power snatch + 1 high hang full snatch, just with 50 lbs
Prowler pushing approx 40 yds on astroturf with 135 lbs
7 reps, on the 1.5 minute mark
Workout 1:
Shoulder presses (with a regular barbell): worked up to 115 lbs x 5
Shoulder press static hold (on the smith machine): tried 215 lbs, couldn't get it off the bottom pin. Then tried 190, held that for 30 seconds. Will go for 3 sets at 205 next time.
Density work w/ rest times as specified in BP3.0:
DB bench presses with 50 lb DBs
Inverted rows
Did 6 sets of each. Would like to be doing dips, but since I'm just getting over my dip-caused shoulder injury that would probably be asking for trouble.
Workout 2:
Deadlift 305 lbs x 5 (328x5 my recent rep max, from 3 weeks ago)
Deadlift smith machine static hold: 2 sets 15 seconds 415 lbs
Density work:
6 sets belt squats w/ 200 lbs using the iron mind loading pin Rob recommended. Went 2.5 minutes between sets. Decided not to alternate these with anything.
2 sets RDLs with 155 lbs. First set 8 reps, 2nd set 6 reps.
Ran out of time to do the abs/core density work.
Did 6 caps synthagen before the workouts, 6 oz tart cherry juice mixed with 12 oz water to down the synthagen and during the workouts, and 3 caps just before the main meal after the works. Fish oil, along with Vitamin D / K, and curcumin. Adaptagen N at bedtime.
Darn it, am meaning to take the EGCG during the morning, but keep forgetting.
On the Static Holds you probably should cut back the time to about 5 seconds according to Rob. This should allow you to use heavier weights.
That is what I do on all of my upper body Static Holds. But for lower body, I've found that I need to go longer on the Leg Press Static Hold, so I shoot for 15 seconds. It seems like you can push your legs a lot harder during a Static Hold than you can shoulders or chest.
That is what I do on all of my upper body Static Holds. But for lower body, I've found that I need to go longer on the Leg Press Static Hold, so I shoot for 15 seconds. It seems like you can push your legs a lot harder during a Static Hold than you can shoulders or chest.
Yeah, my intent was to use a weight that initially limited me to 5 seconds, and then increase the weight when I got to 12-15 seconds. But because I'm zeroing in on the weight and also completely new to these from a structural adaptation viewpoint, I didn't want to push it too hard the first time.
I'll rethink waiting until 12-15 seconds, and maybe bump up the weight whenever I get to 10 seconds.
I'll rethink waiting until 12-15 seconds, and maybe bump up the weight whenever I get to 10 seconds.
11/15 workout:
Decline bench static holds
245 for 15 sec
255 just barely budged the bar for 5
Density work
Shoulder presses 100 lbs 5 reps + 4 chin-ups
On 3 minutes 6 sets
Triceps push downs 60 lbs + ezcurls 50 lbs.
on 2 minutes 6 sets
My shoulder didn't love the bench static holds. My shoulder doesn't normally tolerate flat barbell benches, but I was hoping the decline bench with extremely limited ROM would be different. Doesn't look like it, will probably have to skip the static hold at least on this.
11/17 workout
45 lb ohd squats warmup.
Back squat
Worked up to 195x 3, then a max set of 215 x 6
Density work:
Back squats 5 reps 185 with swings 53x 8
4 sets with 2 minute rest
Whew, shoulder was really hurting during the back squats. But now (11/18), shoulder feels much better . . . pretty much fine. Funny how OHD squats never seem to hurt my shoulders; usually make them feel better.
Whew, back squats plus swings gave me pretty severe doms today in the morning. Usually I don't get sore until about now--later in the afternoon. But actually the DOMS seems to be going away. Maybe Mass PRo Synthagen in action.
Decline bench static holds
245 for 15 sec
255 just barely budged the bar for 5
Density work
Shoulder presses 100 lbs 5 reps + 4 chin-ups
On 3 minutes 6 sets
Triceps push downs 60 lbs + ezcurls 50 lbs.
on 2 minutes 6 sets
My shoulder didn't love the bench static holds. My shoulder doesn't normally tolerate flat barbell benches, but I was hoping the decline bench with extremely limited ROM would be different. Doesn't look like it, will probably have to skip the static hold at least on this.
11/17 workout
45 lb ohd squats warmup.
Back squat
Worked up to 195x 3, then a max set of 215 x 6
Density work:
Back squats 5 reps 185 with swings 53x 8
4 sets with 2 minute rest
Whew, shoulder was really hurting during the back squats. But now (11/18), shoulder feels much better . . . pretty much fine. Funny how OHD squats never seem to hurt my shoulders; usually make them feel better.
Whew, back squats plus swings gave me pretty severe doms today in the morning. Usually I don't get sore until about now--later in the afternoon. But actually the DOMS seems to be going away. Maybe Mass PRo Synthagen in action.